Jockey Gary Stevens just misses storybook return to racing

ARCADIA, Calif. — Never one to be late, Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens was a little tardy for his second job on Sunday.

Stevens’ main gig as an analyst with HRTV at Santa Anita had to wait until he completed the first ride of his remarkable comeback journey in the sixth race. It was almost storybook stuff, what amounted to Stevens’ 27,596th ride of his career, with a break of seven years since he last piloted a thoroughbred. The span even included a role in the blockbuster horseracing movie, “Seabiscuit.” Stevens finished third, but no more than a neck and a nose separated him from the winner, trainer Mike Mitchell’s Maybe Tuesday, who was a neck in front of second-place runner Deacon Speakin.’

“It felt really good, and I thought, man, it’s going to be a storybook comeback, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said Stevens, who finished third for the 3,977th time in his career, with 4,888 wins. “It was close enough.”

Stevens was never worse than third on Jebrica, and he took the lead briefly in mid-stretch to give the crowd a thrill before getting passed. But Stevens, the winner of eight Triple Crown races, including three Kentucky Derbies, and eight Breeders’ Cup races, was glad to be back in the saddle, win, place or show.

“It feels great,” Stevens said. “Now I have to get a shower and get ready for the Monrovia (Stakes, the eighth race and his post in the HRTV booth).”

Trainer Bob Baffert compared Stevens to Denver Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning, who came back after taking a year off for neck surgeries. But Stevens’ last race was in November of 2005, and even though it was a long spell between rides, his fans remembered the legendary rider. Dozens gathered in the paddock to take pictures and watch Stevens’ old friend, Bryson Cooper, give him a leg up on Jebrica, who is conditioned by Northwest-based trainer Jim Penney.

“He’s a legend,” said Darrell Haire, West Coast regional manager for the Jockeys’ Guild. “He’s great for the game.”

Mitchell, whose horse beat Stevens,’ told him before the race that he was glad to see him back.

“I told him unless he was 100 percent, I know he wouldn’t do it,” Mitchell said. “He’s such a professional. I won a lot of races with the guy, and I love him.”

Stevens, 49, said if stepping out of the jockeys’ room and straight into the broadcast booth means analyzing his own rides, so be it. Stevens also said that being in the TV booth the last 6½ years gives him a different perspective.

“One of the great things in the last 6½ years in working with NBC, TVG and HRTV has been in analyzing races and doing my homework,” Stevens said. “I look at a race now totally different than when I was riding. That will be an asset and a plus in my planning for races.

“You have to be on top of it. I was aware of every other horse in the race, what their form was and rode accordingly. I guess you put a more into it studying analytically for television, but at the end of the day when you’re on their back you have to have an open mind and be able to adapt.”

Stevens’ horse of choice in his comeback race was Jebrica, a 5-year-old gelding he’d been exercising for Penney in the mornings.

“But there’s nothing like the race itself,” Stevens said, admitting he got excited when it appeared he might win his first race back. “That’s the first time I’ve knuckled down on one in seven years, and it felt good.”

Stevens' next race is on Readyforhercloseup for trainer Richard Mandella in the third race on Friday at Santa Anita.